Keeping Kids Safe Online can be more of a challenge than you think. When you are on the Internet you know how hard it is to keep yourself safe from people, but when you are sending your kids online it can be even more dangerous than what you imagined. This is when you may want to have some tips on how you can keep your kids safe when they are online. Without any of these tips, you may have trouble getting to know your children are properly protected from any of the strangers on the Internet or even the websites which you do not want them to be on.
Keeping Kids Safe Online: Limit The Use Of Mobile Internet
A common problem you may have is when your kids are constantly getting onto the Internet when you are not around. Now when you are at home you can eliminate this problem by turning off your Internet or even better bringing the router with you. However, sometimes you will not be home when your kids are getting online and this can easily lead to them being seen as an easier type of prey for the stalkers and other people. This is when you should know more information about how you can limit the access and use of the mobile Internet. Then you will have a better chance of guaranteeing your children are safe even when they are away from your home network and even away from the different types of monitoring you can do.
– The best way you can limit the use of the mobile Internet is to get a phone which does not allow for connection to the Internet. These phones will just be used for dialling and while they are rare now, they do exist. So you need to look for this type of phone to guarantee your children cannot get access to the Internet.
– Something else you can do to help you limit your children from being able to interact online with mobile devices is to disable the features when you are not around. This may be a little bit more of a challenge, but often phone companies will teach you how to set up the device to disable the Internet and then password protect it. Then you do not have to be concerned about your kids getting online when you cannot help them or protect them from the stalkers or other creeps online.
Keeping Kids Safe Online: Blocking Specific Content For Your Kids
For younger kids, you may be worried about them getting onto websites they should not be on. This is a common fear and one which many parents will have. To help you combat this problem you need to know about the different content blockers which you can use. When you know about these blockers, it is easy for you to block out specific websites or even different content based on the specific keyword you do not want to have your kids viewing. Here are some of the specifics you should look for in the content blocking programs you want to use.
– Find a blocker which will block content based on a specific keyword. Sometimes when you have children they like to type on the keyboard. When they are typing on the keyboard they will type in a variety of words. So you will want to make sure your blocking software is able to block any of the potential words your kids could type into a search browser. Just this one little step alone will help you know you are able to stay safe online.
– You will also want to find out how easy it is for the content blocker to be broken into. Normally your younger kids will not care about getting into any of the different blockers you have, but as they get older they may want to start to explore the different websites. When the kids reach this age, they will start to try to break into the content blocker you are using and try to get into the websites they are not supposed to be on.
– Something else you may want to consider is if you know any of the specific websites which your kids can get into trouble is if you can manually block the address. When you can do this, it will be easy for you to type in the address to which your kids are going and be able to have it blocked. Then you do not have to be concerned about the kids being able to type in a specific address that they may have seen or read about before.
Keeping Kids Safe Online: Tracking Software On The Computer
As your kids get older the content filters may not be a feasible option anymore. However, you will want to make sure you are looking at the different types of tracking software. When you look at this, you can easily keep track of the activities of your older teens and know what they are doing on the Internet. To make sure you are able to do this without being discovered you need to make sure you know more information on what to look for in the tracking software. Then you can make sure you are keeping yourself and the kids you have raised to a teenager level completely safe.
– Make sure the software can run in the background without being discovered. When you are tracking the activities of your children you do not want them to know that you are doing this. This is when you should make sure you are able to have the program running in the background without interfering with anything else your kids are doing and without popping up when they click on anything.
– Something else you should look for is what kind of reporting it will give to you. You may have never thought about this aspect before, but you need to know when the program will give you the reports, but also how it will be giving you the reports. Sometimes you have to get back onto their computer to get the information. However, other programs will provide you with an email or some other type of way of getting you the information on where your kids are going.
– Get to know what kind of tracking this can do for you. You may have never thought about this before, but you will need to know what sites it will report on and even if it will give you the passwords for accounts or not. Without this, you may end up only getting a partial report and this may not help you keep your kids safe when they are on the computer. By having this, though, you can easily keep track of your kid’s activities and know you are not going to be missing out on any of the details.
Keeping Kids Safe Online: Keep Track Of Your Kids Behavior
While you may think you are doing all that you can to keep your kids safe online, you need to realize you should look at the different ways your kids are getting around everything you have in place. So you need to constantly check on your blockers and tracking programs. Then you can make sure your kids are not doing anything which is going to venture into them being able to bypass the protections you have in place and getting to the information you do not want to have them looking at.
– For the content blockers you will want to change your password on a regular basis. However, you will also want to make sure you check to see when the blocking programs were last accessed. Normally you will want to track what date you are getting the blocking information changed, but also you will want to make sure you look at the different access times and guarantee it was not you. If the last log on a date was not one you recognize you will want to make sure you look at the times and if the filter was turned on or turned off at any given time.
– With the tracking programs you will want to make sure they are still working and reporting properly. For example, if you notice a dramatic drop in the amount of information you are getting it will be most likely because your kids have gained access to the program and turned it off. However, if you are still getting the same amount of traffic as normal, then you are most likely still getting the proper information and have not been discovered with the tracking you are doing.
Keeping Kids Safe Online: Observe Your Kids
This may seem like it is a little odd when you have older kids or even kids who are on a specific website, but you need to make sure you are checking on your kids. When you check on your kids it is easy for you to notice if anything is changing and even know which websites they are going to. Then you will not have to be concerned about your kids being exposed to things which you do not want them to see or even getting involved on a website. Here are some ideas for how you can easily observe your kids and know they are not going to a website they should not be involved with.
– Sitting next to your child is one of the first things you can do. Now, this is a great idea, but you should realize older kids will not want you sitting right on them and may consider this as an invasion of privacy. So you need to realize that sitting next to your kids words great when they are younger, but you may find as they are getting older it can be more difficult to do.
– Frequently check on your kids. Normally you would not have thought about this, but you can leave your kids alone on the computer, even your younger kids if you check on them. This may be nothing more than walking up and looking at the screen to see what is open, but it may also include looking at the history of what was browsed through when your kids were online. Since you are looking at this, it will be easy for you to have a great time and know what your kids are doing, even when you are granting them their privacy online.
Having children can be a blessing, but in the world today it can also be seen as a curse since you have to protect your children from Internet predators. This is when you should know more information on how you can keep your kids safe online. When you know this information, it is easy for you to keep all of your children safe on the Internet and know you do not have to be concerned about your kids being hurt at all when they are trying to enjoy the Internet. Without this information, you may have to constantly be worried about your kids being hurt or even worse kidnapped because they went to the wrong website.